Blue Spot

NYC refuses lucrative tax breaks for bank to move to ground zero

One of the nation's largest banks has threatened to leave the city if it doesn't receive bigger tax breaks to develop one of five planned office towers at ground zero, government officials said Wednesday.

JP Morgan & Chase Co. has been negotiating for weeks to build and lease the last skyscraper planned to replace the office space destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, officials familiar with the talks told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The bank has offered the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey $300 million for rights to develop the 50-story skyscraper on land now occupied by a vacant skyscraper heavily damaged on Sept. 11, one official said.

If the deal goes through, JP Morgan would build the tower and move thousands of employees from several midtown locations to the site, just south of the original twin towers.

But the bank has sought more lucrative tax incentives from the city and state to move downtown, and is looking at locations in Connecticut and New Jersey if a deal can't be reached, officials said.

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